Tag Archives: PS4

In an interview with Eurogamer, director Jeff Kaplan had mentioned in the story below that the plan was to decrease the Fan the Hammer damage for Overwatch hero McCree.

“The goal there is to make it so that McCree can still use his combo that we love, which is Flashbang and Fan the Hammer on somebody like Tracer. McCree should absolutely kill that Tracer. We want McCree to be a counter to people like Tracer, Genji and Reaper.”

“What we’re not crazy about, right now, is the way in which McCree can absolutely shred tanks. It’s a little too easy, so we want to bring the Fan the Hammer damage down, so he’s still killing the squishies and the medium strength heroes, but he’s less effective against the tanks.”

“If he times everything perfectly and gets every single shot off, he’s got a shot against a tank, but it’s not the instant ‘I win’ button that it is right now.”

ORIGINAL STORY

D.Va and McCree are in Blizzard’s balancing cross-hair at the moment as players have started to feedback the strengths and weaknesses of the tank and offensive characters.

In a battle.net forum thread, Principal designer Geoff Goodman made suggestions regarding possible nerfs to offensive hero McCree as he has a very lethal flashbang and Fan the Hammer combo – this is the alt-fire on his six shooter that unloads all bullets in the blink of an eye.

This win combo according to Goodman’s statement is likely to be adjusted, speaking on behalf of the studio in a thread called ‘Please Nerf McCree’:

“I’ve been watching McCree carefully since we’ve released. McCree’s flashbang plays an important role in being strong option against very fast/agile teams (Tracerrs, Genjis etc).”

“It is also a nice tool to prevent close range devastating abilities and ultimates such as Reaper’s Death Blossom. That said, its probably a bit too good at dealing damage to higher health targets such as Tanks and barriers. I don’t have any concrete changes yet, but I’m going to be testing some things internally to see how he plays.”

“By saying it’s probably a bit too good at dealing damage to higher health targets’ I meant his Flash/Fan combo, not the Flash itself. Fan is more likely to see changes than Flash at this point.”

In another thread regarding D.Va, Goodman also made various hints regarding the hero’s relatively low damage output:

“D.Va’s damage is definitely on the lower side, much like Winston’s. They are this way for a similar reason; They are both very mobile and hard to kill. Every character in the game has strengths and weaknesses, it’s part of what makes the team-play work well.”

“That said, I do think there is some room for some D.Va improvements, but these are unlikely to take the shape of increasing her damage output significantly.”

“Yes she gets taken down quickly if she is fighting multiple targets, unlike Winston/Reinhardt because of their barriers. When I said she is difficult to kill it’s speaking for a smaller skirmish standpoint standpoint, which can usually set up due to her Flight ability.”

“There was a time, when she was first implemented, where she had more damage than she does now. The way that played out is that she would fly into someone’s face, destroy them, and fly away. There was little that person could do because her mobility.”

“The goal is that she should be a viable aggressive initiation tank, much like Winston can be right now, rather than some sort of beefy flying assassin. So any changes will likely be helping her in that direction.”

There isn’t anything concrete at the moment if Blizzard actually will be implementing these tweaks, however such is the life of any games similar to Overwatch that has any sort of competitive PvP like Destiny or Tom Clancy’s: The Division. The inevitability of imbalances where certain characters are overpowered compared to others as players will always find lethal combos.

The Division 1.2 free update titled Conflict is now available for download on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC for Tom Clancy’s The Division, which includes Dark Zone loot hijacking, fresh activities like high-valued targets, new gear, the second end-game incursion, massive amount of bug fixes following a scheduled maintenance.

Some of the more welcomed additions to the update is the mass amount of bug fixes that have been recurring throughout the game, such as exploits where players rapidly equip and unequip items which stacks the effects of talents. This more so enables god like character buffs that should not even be possible to achieve.

One of the most intense and probably interesting mechanics that has been added to the game is the ability to hijack Dark Zone loot that has been attached to an extraction helicopter. This on top of the random supply drops which was added in the previous update, hopefully we can see the Dark Zone getting a bit more intense, which is where the entirety of the excitement lies.

The second incursion titled Clear Sky will situate agents in Columbus Circle tasked with targeting an anti-air missile site.

In the tweet below posted by the official @TheDivisionGame page, they outline specific gear sets for players with different play styles.

4) Every time you land a shot depending on the distance to the target, it will give you Damage Resistance against enemy weapon damage – you can go above 75% Damage Mitigation. The additional armor disappears after one bullet hits you

Lone Star – DPS

2) 100% Ammo Capacity

3) 1000 LMG Damage

3) 1000 Shotgun Damage

4) Every time you holster a weapon it will automatically be reloaded

Final Measure – Defensive

2) 50% Exotic Damage Resilience

3) 15% Protection from Elites

4) When you you damage a player or an NPC with a grenade, you get a defuse buff, that allows you to defuse enemy grenades. When you defuse an enemy grenade it also gives you a grenade. (Also works with mortars in Falcon Lost)

Predator’s Mark – Support

2) 20% Optimal Range

3) 800 Assault Rifle Damage

3) 700 Pistol Damage

4) Every time you hit 10 Bullets without switching the target, will apply bleed to the target. The bleed damage will be 100% of the damage already done by the bullets

Before reading the in-depth notes found below, you might want to check up the ‘Conflict’ trailer found below.

The notes can be found below in extensive detail such as: New features, Games changes, Loot balancing, Bug fixes and much more.

New features

-New incursion: Clear Sky

Clear Sky is a new Incursion mission available in Columbus Circle.

You must be level 30.

The encounter is balanced for a team of 4 players outfitted with high level gear.

Hard Mode is available on May 24 when the update is released.

Challenge Mode will be made available the week after update 1.2 launches.

The ISAC Assignment is a new assignment type included in the map overview.

The ISAC Assignment will be available to players at level 30.

Every week a new ISAC Assignment will be available to the player.

The ISAC Assignment will reward players with exclusive vanity items.

-General

Added new high-end named weapons in the game.

Hungry Hog: M60 Light Machinegun

Centurion: M1911 Pistol

Medved: SAIGA12 Shotgun

Historian: M1A Marksman Rifle

(Showstopper – AA12 Shotgun): Please note that while the Showstopper will be implemented in the game with this update, it will not be acquirable in-game until update 1.3

The Historian high-end marksman rifle is now available.

Added a 201+ Gear Score bracket for highly leveled players.

Game changes

-Gameplay

When a player is at max level, matchmaking for Hard and Challenge mode will now only seek players that are Level 30.

Armor damage mitigation cap has been increased to 75%.

Improved weapon blind fire and overall handling while in cover.

Reduced damages from level 34 NPCs using Shotguns and Sniper rifles.

Gear Score will now only take into account the equipped weapon with the highest Gear Score, and discard the other two. This will prevent players from equipping low quality weapons to voluntarily reduce their Gear Score.

Increased Gear Score requirement of Falcon Lost to better represent its difficulty (note that the difficulty of this Incursion hasn’t changed)

Hard Mode: Gear Score 160

Challenge Mode: Gear Score 180

-UI

In the Overview of the Inventory, the Health stat above Stamina has been replaced with Toughness. This is a combination of Health and Armor. The player’s health pool will still be visible in the Character page and Stamina still increases Health.

The Phoenix credit cap has been increased from 1000 to 2000 credits.

Shooting a player while they are interacting with an object will cause the timer to push back. (such as opening a supply crate or hijacking an extraction)

Players now have a voice chat indicator in the game UI to see if their own VOIP works.

The Special Gear Vendor has been renamed Special Equipment Vendor.

-Items

The Sentry’s Call 4 pieces talent will now only apply to semi-automatic weapons (pistols, shotguns, and marksman rifles).

The Second bonus on Performance Mods have been significantly improved.

-Dark Zone

The extraction departure timer once the helicopter arrived has been increased to 60 seconds.

Loot balancing

We have made a number of changes to loot drops. Specific activities will now provide the rewards listed below.

Although over the past few years classic games have been remastered and remade like Square Enix’s reboot of Tomb Raider or a HD Twilight Princess, credit where it’s due, these remakes and revamps are doing relatively well, because if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, right? Plus, who doesn’t like a bit of nostalgia.

Ratchet & Clank was one of the PlayStation 2’s most cherished, adventurous and outgoing 3D platformers in the early 2000s. It has been 14 years since Insomniac Games released the first Ratchet and Clank and they have ultimately outdone themselves in this remake – rebuilding the original from the ground up. Although they have reiterated their action-adventure formula with a dozen other Ratchet and Clank main titles and spin-offs from their 2009 release, A Crack in Time to their 2013 release Into The Nexus, this remake is a welcomed nostalgic reminder that the 3D platformer genre is undeniably lacking today.

The title has been released on the PS4 to accompany the upcoming film which hits theatres on April 29 (the game based on the film, based on the game – pretty ironic), however rather than a remastering it’s more of a re-imagining, giving old school fans more of a reason to come back and experience the title in current gen graphics with new twists in arsenal, story arcs and dialogue.

The game tells the story of an unlikely but lovable duo brought together by fate. Ratchet – a dare to be hero resides and works as a mechanic on the planet Veldin, where we find him daydreaming about adventure and ultimately joining the Galactic Rangers. Clank is a defective warbot who escapes the factory of his creation to warn the galaxy about the imminent warbot threat at the hands of Chairman Drek and Doctor Nefarious. The story is narrated by the harmless yet egotistical Captain Qwark, who dictates the story to a new inmate in the confines of a space prison. This interesting change of events reveals Captain Qwark’s betrayal from the get go as opposed to the original where players don’t find out until the end.

The cut scenes throughout are very Pixar-esque, which isn’t too surprising considering the game is meant to tie into the movie. Although the game doesn’t run at 60fps, there are rarely ever any frame drops considering the screen is constantly bursting with hordes of AI, explosions, and my personal favourite the volcanic barrage of nuts and bolts after swiping the area clean to have all the loot magnetized towards you so seamlessly.

Vibrant visuals and lively landscapes throughout the game are some of the most impressive graphical achievements to date on the PS4. Jetting around to familiar planets like Novalis and Pokitaru, I simultaneously felt nostalgic but also a sense of curiosity as some elements of the game were completely new when it came to various plot points, terrains and planets.

Ratchet & Clank’s combat in conjunction with it’s range of Gadgetron weaponry is some of the most addictive and satisfying mechanics in a more recent PS4 title. It seamlessly encourages players to experiment with a whole range of weapons that were not only in the first game but a variety of the games throughout the series. Ratchet’s OmniWrench 8000 is undeniably one of the most deadliest and iconic weapons, coupled with various long ranged firearms that have an intricate progression system and a talent tree in-place, which makes going up against enemy AI a well rounded, rewarding experience. For instance, the Groovitron makes enemies of all kinds, even bosses, have their own unique set of dance moves, whilst a newer edition to Ratchet’s arsenal the Pixelizer, widely praised for its creativity, is a blaster that converts enemies from 3D into pixelated 8-bit designs. A personal favourite of mine is the Glove of Doom which unleashes a frenzy of small kamikaze robots that explode on impact (really useful for attacking hard to reach blargg enemies protected by stationed turrets).

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Last week, Tom Clancy’s The Division received the April update which fixed various bugs, added free new content like Dark Zone supply drops, Assignments along with the games first Incursion, ‘Falcon Lost’.

The raid styled “incursion” contains an exploit where players are able to glitch their way through a wall and hit the Last Man Batallion’s APC with sticky grenades, which is the raid’s boss encounter as well as not being detected by the enemy AI.

The April update although fixing many old bugs, has reactively brought about many new ones, where players had discovered their characters were missing along with the game’s Daily Challenges.

Ubisoft’s Community Manager, Natchai Stappers had popped on the game’s official forum on Friday to discuss the update in detail and also give warning over any player who had been using the exploit.

“We are working on fixing the exploit. Obviously it is against our Code of Conduct and the team is looking into what can be done in terms of punishment for those who have exploited.”

“Exploitation of any new or known issues or bugs is forbidden and may result in account suspension or revocation.”

Many players have had a lot to say about Ubisoft’s statement against the developer’s flawed coding, design and Code of Conduct.

One community member commented against Massive’s Code of Conduct by stating, “You know what else is against the code of conduct? Hacking. Played against a hacker last night that was reported over a week with video evidence. Why don’t you properly test your code before you release it.”

“It absolutely sickens me that a Community Manager has stepped forward not to apologize for the complete mess of code that has been delivered as a finished produce, but rather to deflect blame for any balancing issues that may arise due to their shoddy production onto their paying customers.”

On the other side of the debate however, the exploit causes issues for those players who are trying to play the game honestly, but are now falling behind because of how other players are able to repeatedly reap the rewards of the raid.

This is indicative from the complaints in the official Ubisoft forum as one player stated, “After two failed attempts at matchmaking and getting kicked out of groups for not wanting to exploit, curiosity got the better of me.”

There has yet to be an official line of punishment for those who are abusing the exploit at this point. Although, trying to pin point the players who have cheated is going to be a difficult line of inquiry for the developers.

Many players have recommended that the activity should be taken completely offline until the exploit has been effectively dealt with as one player commented, “Sorry, I’ve defended the game up to this point despite all it’s glaring flaws, but you can’t have a glitch of this magnitude for your f***ing end game and not get it fixed within hours. If this was WOW, they would have shut down the servers until it gets fixed.”

So what do you think of the situation – is it Ubisoft’s fault that the exploit has not been swiftly fixed or should players be getting reprimanded for engaging in the game’s exploit.

For more news and updates on The Division, don’t forget to follow the official @Hackinformer twitter.

Developer Ubisoft Massive has released details for the free update which is set to release on April 12. The entirety of the patch notes has been added below along with the teaser trailer for Assignments.

Key changes available in the update include players now being able to report cheaters in the game who will then be suspended for three days once reviewed by Ubisoft Massive. If the player has been reported on a second occasion for cheating, their account will be permanently banned.

Another big feature change is what the community developer Yanncik Banchereau mentioned in the latest State of the Game discussion, where the blueprints for level 31 and 32 will require Division Tech. The Dark Zone’s will now have Supply Drop events which occur multiple times in the day giving players more of a reason to go rogue.

The game’s first raid called ‘Falcon Lost’ incursion will also go live during the update – this activity requires four people at the current level cap of 30.

The first incursion will see the game take place in an underground water treatment facility where the Last Man Battalion has set up a stronghold.

“Falcon Lost has two difficulties: Hard mode, which is recommended for players whose gear score is equivalent to level 31; and challenging mode, which is even tougher,” in a blog post by Ubisoft. “Also, there aren’t any checkpoints in Falcon Lost; if your team goes down, you’ll have to restart from the beginning. Additionally, you can reply Falcon Lost and other upcoming incursions as many times as you want and still be rewarded with new loot.”

For the games second Incursion, titled Conflict, the new instance will be set in New York’s Columbus Circle, and will also add more life to the Dark Zone.

The Division update 1.1 patch notes

Falcon Lost

Falcon Lost is a new incursion available in the Stuyvesant area

You must be level 30 and have completed the mission “General Assembly” to access this mission

The encounter is balanced for 4 players with high-level gear

Gear Sets

Gear set equipment can be found by completing the most challenging activities in Manhattan

It sees as though many major publishers and developers are jumping the gun these past few days by prematurely revealing content, as was evident yesterday during the Fallout 4 announcement.

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection brieflyhit the digital PlayStation store before any official announcement in the late hours of June 3. Greg Miller shared the news via twitter who had noticed the title on the mobile PlayStation Store, however it wasn’t long before it disappeared.Clicking on the banner exhibited a error message, “Unable to Find This Page” which evidently indicated that the promo was indeed unintentionally posted up.

Neil Druckman in response to the premature reveal more or less confirmed in a tweet last night The Nathan Drake Collection.

Details of the collection remained scarce in the early hours of the morning. Later in the day, Sony posted an official statement in their blog with regards to an official release date for the critically acclaimed PS3 trilogy which will be remastered for the PS4.

Such instances of unintended reveals are not unusual, especially with Sony, as it just so happened in 2014 when The Last of Us Remastered was unintentionally revealed on Sony’s digital game storefront.

Naughty Dog’s official twitter page confirmed the release of the collection here.

The collection will include, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. The package in addition to three single player campaigns comes with new trophies and photo mode. Multiplayer will not be included, however upon purchasing the collection, it grants players exclusive access to the Uncharted 4 multiplayer beta.

The newly announced collection will be available October 7 2015 for the US and, October 9 for UK and Ireland.

Uncharted 4: A Thiefs End

The AAA title Uncharted 4: A Thiefs End was slated to be released in 2015, however due to delays the title is now scheduled for release during the first quarter of 2016.

Naughty Dog’s co-directors for Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley in light of the delays back in March stated:

“Giving us a few extra months will make certain that Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End not only meets the team’s high standards but the high standards that gamers have come to expect from a Naughty Dog title.”

What do you guys think about this collection? Share your thoughts with us on our Twitter pages @HackInformer and @geestaar74

Here’s a first glimpse at the announcement video for Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection.

This isn’t the first time the title of a game has been leaked to the public in an unusual manner as we throw back to when Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag had been spotted on a flight for a marketing presentation back in 2013.

As Rise of The Tomb Raider made it’s way to the PlayStation 4 after a year long exclusivity deal with Microsoft, the critically acclaimed title was well received a year on and there is no doubt that players are anticipating more.

Redditor ‘Tripleh280’ who was riding the Montreal subway posted “saw someone working on a presentation for “Shadow of the Tomb Raider” on the subway (Possible new game?)

As seen in the image provided, albeit blury, there is the name Shadow of the Tomb Raider on the right hand side of the power-point.

Tripleh280 said to Polygon:

“I was looking at my phone and next to me was this guy working on a power-point. Out of curiosity I took a look to see what he was working [on]. That’s when I saw the logo for Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I work downtown Montreal so I know that many game studios are in the area so I assumed it possibly real and was the name of the next Tomb Raider game. From where I was standing, I couldn’t see much other than the page he was on talked about visual design.”

Since the presentation had been spotted in Montreal, it might be safe to assume that the next Tomb Raider is going to be undertaken by developer Eidos Montreal and not the original developers from Crystal Dynamics who are based in San Francisco.

A source told Kotaku that the rumoured title was confirmed to be authentic, however titles can always be subject to change.

Polygon having reached out to Square Enix for a comment responded, “We don’t comment on rumours and speculation.”

For more news and updates regarding Tomb Raider, don’t forget to follow us on our official Twitter pages @Hackinformer and @Geestaar74.